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Angela Merkel has put the brakes on grand schemes for reform of the eurozone as Germany enters election mode.

The Chancellor, re-elected as her party’s leader with 97.94 per cent of the vote, wants 2013 to be a year of eurozone consolidation and steady progress towards the banking union project kick-started at the December EU summit in Brussels.

Mrs Merkel usually gets what she wants in European negotiations and her vision of a banking supervisor for just the largest eurozone banks prevailed at the summit. She also saw off plans for the eurozone to have its own budget and ensured